Lorraine Cornish, from the Natural History Museum, said: “It’s a really proud day, it has been a lot of work to plan this with all the venues.

“It took two weeks to put Dippy together and we are really, really pleased Dippy is going to open to the public on Saturday.

“Although the dinosaur has 292 bones, Dippy comes together in 86 pieces.

“We chose Dorset because we decided we wanted to go back in time to when Dippy was around, 150 million years ago, and the Jurassic Coast is the home of palaeontology.

“It is great for people to be able to come and see Dippy in a venue outside of London, it’s free and there are a fantastic range of events to engage people, young and old with Dippy, the natural world and natural history.”

(PA Graphics)

Dippy will be on display in Dorchester for three months before being shown at museums and cathedrals in Birmingham, Belfast, Glasgow, Newcastle, Cardiff, Rochdale and Norwich.